October sunshine

Fall is fine, when it's sunny and the air is dry. It's been raining way too much during the past few weeks, so it's almost a civic duty to go out when the sun decides to show up. 

Even though it's not necessary to wear hats yet, I couldn't resist to dig my favourite tassel beanie from the bottom of my closet where it's been waiting for cold weather since last winter. I got it from flea market they organize at Helsinki ice rink in wintertime whenever there's no games, fairs or such. In almost every weekend there was this lady selling all sorts of beanies with different colours, both with and without tassels, all handmade by her. I don't know if she's there this winter, but I need to check that, because I might want to buy another one in other colour. They are so comfy and warm!

The next thing, I suppose, is to figure out what to wear in the coming November rain.

Handmade tassel beanie, second hand vest, Marc Lauge shirt, Gina Tricot jeans, vintage boots and second hand bag.

Let the cheese melt!

I admit, clubbing is fun. BUT so is a night spent indoors with fabulous friends, good food and fine wine! We got invited to a friend's house in Porvoo, a small city about a 45 minute ride from Helsinki. The Friday night started with glasses of sparkling wine and went on with preparation of the meal, which we cooked with a raclette grill. All sorts of cheese, meat, sausages, pickled onions, tomatoes, shrimps, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic... am I forgetting something? Oh, and wine :).

Who would have believed all the energy we got after a day at work. Despite staying up late, we hit the city on Saturday. Ok, only in the afternoon, but still. The old city with its architecture and small boutiques and cafes is like a fairytale village straight from Astrid Lingren's books. Can't wait to get there at Christmas time again.

We visited several little stores, of which the Little chocolate factory is one of my favourites (who would have known). From the store, you can see them making the chocolate right behind the glass wall. I got blueberry and cardamom truffles, yum! They also have white chocolate mustard, random but could work as a gift.

We finished our visit with cups of coffee and apple pie at Cafe Helmi, a lovely little place with beautiful furnishings. Helmi (Pearl) is also my dear, dear grandmom's name, so kind of liked it before even stepping in :). They use dishes most of us have seen at our grandparents' house and the whole atmosphere is like decades back. After travelling in time we had to return to hectic Helsinki. Everyday rat race, here I come again!

Caramel cupcakes with pecan

My mom knows I'm into baking so she surprised me with this super cute book full of the most amazing cupcake recipes (Ingrid Hancock Bjerknes: Kuppikakut / WSOY. They have an english version as well called, surprisingly, Cupcakes). It was hard to decide which ones to try first: mojito cupcakes, marshmallow cupcakes or perhaps Baileys cupcakes. The lucky winner was pecan nut cupcakes with caramel topping. The combination of those two sounded (and tasted) heavenly, and the picture sealed the deal. Ok, my versions didn't turn out that pretty, but they were delicious. Especially served with whipped cream. I think the photo in the book has been taken right after pouring the topping, whereas in my picture the topping has already dried up. 

See the recipe below and enjoy!

Caramel cupcakes with pecan

INGREDIENTS

Dough
300 g pecan nuts
200 g warm margarin
1 1/2 dl sugar
1 1/2 dl brown sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
mocha essence (I skipped this one)
4 dl sieved wheat flour
1 dl grinded almond
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 dl whipping cream
1 banana

Caramel topping
60 g margarin
100 g brown sugar
4 tabelspoons light syrup
1 1/2 dl whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oven up to 180 Celcius.
2. Roast the nuts in oven about 15 minutes and let them cool down. Crunch half of them and leave the other half for decoration.
3. Whip margarin with sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs one by one while whipping.
5. Add cinnamon and cardamom (and a few drops of mocha essence). Whip until smooth.
6. Mix flour, grinded almond and baking powder together and add into dough. Whip for a few minutes.
7. Add whipping cream little by little.  
8. Squash the banana and add into dough.
9. Add crushed pecan nuts.
10. Fill cupcake tins half full and bake them for about 15 minutes.

Caramel topping
1. Measure margarin, brown sugar and syrup into pan and heat while mixing until bubbly. Continue mixing for another 2 minutes.
2. Add cream and keep mixing until thick.

Decoration
The topping is very running so use high edged cupcake tins. Decorate cupcakes with nuts (either crunched or whole ones). Pour the topping on top.  

Party like it's 50's!

I know some people just hate theme parties, but I'm not one of those. I've come into the conclusion I live my childhood dream of becoming an actress through them. Dressing up as something else than yourself kind of makes you jump into a role. At least I've noticed I e.g. start to walk more elegantly with 20's dress on. Well, the bad language is stille there ;).

My dear friend turned 30 this week and threw a party with a 50's/pin up theme. The celebration took place at Navy Jerry's, a marine inspired bar, which turned out to be a perfect choice. It was my first time there, and have to say the atmosphere, decoration, staff and music were all good. A big plus is also when a bar has mojitos on their list. Believe me or not, but it hasn't been in one or two clubs where I've heard "we don't have mint" when ordering it.

Right after receiving the invitaiton I had a clear vision on my mind of what to wear: a tulle skirt (which I already had thrown into a 'sell at flea market' -pile), a top and knee socks. Of course I didn't try them on before Saturday, and when I did, felt like a clown. It was just simply too much. Fortunately I had something navyish in my closet – less festive, though – so made it on time. It's been a looong time since wearing these high waist jeans. They were once my favourite pair.

Vintage jacket, Guess jeans, second hand tee, vintage handbag, vintage heels, pearl necklace from Gina Tricot and earrings from Vero Moda.

Habitare – let's make it a habit

I visited Habitare – an annual furniture, interior decoration and design fair in Helsinki – for the first time the past weekend. Obviously the place was full of wonderful design, so could only pick a few favourites to present here. Since I live in a 30 square meter apartment, I have pretty much done all the furnishings that can be done. Thus, my interest leaned toward small decoration stuff. And what actually ended up in my shopping cart was cupcake tins, cake pop sticks and gingerbread forms from Iloinen keittiö (=Happy kitchen). 

Design House Stockholm

Jukka Rintala textile

Aava – timeless living

Silmu-Keramiikka

Savesta

I was delighted to see a fair stand by Savesta, a small pottery from Porvoo. A few co-workers and I visited the pottery last winter, because one my colleagues knows the designer. It was interesting to see the place and hear about the making of these beautiful pieces. For example, the sparkles on the vase above are made by throwing grains into it during the production. These kind of stands with handmade Finnish design both get my 100 percent respect and stand out at the fair among imported, impersonal stuff.

Little bunnies with message signs by Savesta. Cute! :).

Slow Factory espresso/tea cups with sugar/tea bag holder. 

Ari Markkola

Finlayson wall of blogs

This wall was one of the must-sees at this fair for me. Finlayson challenged three Finnish bloggers to decorate one of their rooms with Finlayson products. One of those bloggers is my dear friend Kaisa (the one on the left), who has an amazing blog, take a look: No home without you. She did amazing job, way to go, Kaisa! :)

My absolute favourite is the picture on the right, plain and cozy at the same time.

Cake pop time!

What a week! Got fever on Monday and it lasted until Wednesday. And the sluggish feeling lasted even longer. So got nothing done, including blog updates.

Cake pops have been around for a good while, but in case there's someone who hasn't tried to make them yet, I decided to post about them. Hope you get inspired! What is so cool about these cute treats is that only your imagination is on your way when planning the flavour, shape, colors and decoration. I used Valio's mango cake pops recipe, which you can find here. The idea is to 

1. Crumble a ready made cake (150 g), mix it with cream cheese (100 g) and powdered sugar (1 dl) and roll balls.

(I baked the cake myself, but don't think it's worth the trouble. Use basic sugar cake, chocolate cake, tart or whatever you think matches with the cover you're going to use. Mango-flavored cream cheese worked well in this recipe, gets my recommendations!)

2. Dip the balls in topping, whatever you choose it to be.

(I used melted white chocolate (100 g). I coloured the other half with red food colouring, but for some reason it thickened the topping so badly I ended up shaping it on the balls instead of dipping. That made the balls too heavy for the sticks, see the picture below.)

3. Decorate!

I didn't find lollipop sticks to buy, so I used these long grilling sticks. There are many ways to serve cake pops: you can e.g. stick the sticks in sugar or serve them upside down on a plate. Find some nice examples here. Since I used these ridiculously long sticks, I ended up sticking them in a half cut cabbage which I covered with a nice napkin. I added some two-sided tape on the cabbage to keep te napkin in place. Voila! 

Rollin' on the river

I may have said bad things about cold weather, but I have to admit there's something magical about the first days of fall. The smell, the crispy coldness... and the urge to wrap yourself up in a warm cardigan. I spent last weekend in my hometown Mikkeli, and it's become a tradition to visit the two biggest flea markets in town (Wilma & Wihtori and Reaalikirppis) everytime I travel there. This time we only had time for Wilma & Wihtori, where I found this nice blue cardigan from. That place never leaves me empty handed.   

     (Now tell me how to get the rosin out of my jeans!)

RayBan shades, second hand cardigan, second hand tee, Cubus jeans, Ellos boots.

The union of fashion and art

The Night of the Arts (Taiteiden yö) is always crowded. On my way home from work there was no way I could have not noticed the event is on again. The streets were full of people strolling around and salesmen with their small stands full of cute pieces of handwork. I thought I could take a shortcut via Senaatintori market, but as I reached the corner of it the sight reminded me of the day when Finland won the world championship in ice-hockey. The market was super crowded, because the peak of the night - a huge domino built around the city - ended there. I didn't have time to see the grande finale, since I had to rush to Amos Anderson Art Museum with friends right after a quick stop by at home. It was open to all audience due to the special night.

They have an exceptional exhibition Boutique, in which they have paired Finnish artists and fashion designers to come up with imaginative combinations of these two forms of expression. One might think that whereas art represents something long-lasting and highly valued, fashion can easily be seen as superfcial and fastly changing. For me it is hard to make difference between these two, isn't fashion design also just another form of art? 

Minna Parikka shoes + Jani Leinonen's pop art inspired wallpaper.

Performance installation called "15 %" by designer Timo Rissanen and space designer Salla Salin. In a process of making a garment, 15 % of used fabric goes to waste. You can buy t-shirts made in this "factory" with 4,95 € and you also get that 15 % of fabric with you.

Tyttöevakot: figures by artist Katja Tukiainen, clothes by designer Samu-Jussi Koski.

Short film by Paola Suhonen, onto which Mikko Ijäs has done paintings.